Sapphire Radeon R9 290 Vapor-X OC Review - Test Setup

How We Tested

Our GPU test rig is equipped with the multi-GPU powerhouse that is the Asus Maximus V Extreme, allowing us to run up to 4-card SLI and CrossFire with 8x PCI-E 3.0 lanes per card. The CPU is an Intel Core i5 3570K running at 4.2GHz to raise the CPU headroom, and it's paired with 8GB of 2,400MHz Corsair Dominator DDR3. Our chassis of choice is NZXT's Switch 810, a case big enough to house even a pair of Asus' Ares 2 graphics cards. The Lepa G1600 1600W PSU offers more wattage and 8-pin PCI-E power connectors than we'd ever need.

Our benchmarks are a mix of custom in-game time demos and manually-played sections, using FRAPS to record the average and minimum frame rates. We strive to not only record real-world performance you will actually see, but also present the results in a manner that is easy to digest. We test at 1,920 x 1,080 (1080p) and 2,560 x 1,440, as well as at 5,760 x 1,080 (AMD Eyefinity/Nvidia Surround) and 3,840 x 2,160 (4K) with higher end cards.